Althouse: Did I ever say there was an owl in the second tree?

November 13, 2011

Did I ever say there was an owl in the second tree?

Read closely. I did not. Never assume! The confusing matter roiled the mind of Chip Ahoy, leading to this:

16 comments:

Tyrone Slothrop said...: Barred owl?; 11/13/11, 9:41 PM
Irene said...: Jail bird.; 11/13/11, 9:56 PM
a psychiatrist who learned from veterans said...: Owl is written as 'eagle' with 'cat head' in Chinese characters per James Fallows.; 11/13/11, 10:05 PM
bagoh20 said...: Since we are discussing creating wings where we imagine them, here are some photos of a project I designed and built last month. A railing for my hang gliding club. Designed and built entirely from scratch out of only two materials: Stainless Steel and California Redwood.

This is for a pavilion where pilots watch each other fly and land after jumping off of a 3,500 foot mountain tied to a kite.

After they land, the government requires that they sit behind a railing so as not to fall off the 3 foot high structure. What would we do without them watching out for us?

Anyway it's one of a kind, including an original all stainless steel sculpture. I build things, but this sculpture is the first thing I built that has no function. The railing doesn't really either, but it's government code required.

Wings; 11/13/11, 10:07 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/13/11, 10:17 PM
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...: Ever seen the owl on the $1 bill?

No joke. Upper right corner. The shield with '1' in it. Go to the upper left corner thereof, just next to the olive leaf.

Enjoy the owl, ancient symbol of Athens, and used on their coins about 2,300 years ago. "Taking owls to Athens" was the early classical equivalent of "Coal to Newcastle."

Nice nod to monetary history, in any case.; 11/13/11, 10:21 PM
AmPowerBlog said...: I thought owls are out only at night?; 11/13/11, 10:30 PM
bagoh20 said...: Right. Like I have a $1 bill just laying around the house to look at. We're not all 1% ers.; 11/13/11, 10:32 PM
Rose said...: "Did I ever say there was an owl in the second tree?"

LOL; 11/13/11, 10:54 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: I just realized I should have given him a hat.; 11/13/11, 11:55 PM
Ralph L said...: OMG, Owl ate Piglet and stole his shirt!

We're having very small hams for Thanksgiving dinner, Christopher.; 11/14/11, 3:30 AM
Carnifex said...: AHHH See I DIDN'T fall for the "old owl in the second tree--NOT!" ploy. In high school I had a teacher who gave us a test one day. He was adamant that we read the instructions carefully before we took it. The last instruction was to ignore all the questions, sign our name , and turn in the test. Being the little prig that I as I did indeed read all the instructions. I was also the only one to pass the test. I actually took the test up to his desk and asked him if he was sure this was the test he wanted to give. He chuckled , and told me to go back to my desk and lay my head down for the rest of the test. Since this as Kentucky several students didn't even finish so I spent an hour like that. Actually wished I had failed it so I wouldn't have been so bored.

We see what we assume, and not what is. A good exercise in seeing is trying to see negative space.

As an experiment, try drawing a chair, or a vase , anything. On a second sheet of paper draw the space surrounding you're first drawing. Almost always the second picture is better because we aren't looking at the chair, or the vase, we are looking at the negative space around the chair and vase. We have preconceived notions of what "chair" and "vase" look like lodged in our brains. So we try to force our hand to merge the chair or vase we see with the chair or vase in our heads. Leading to a bad drawing.

Another thought experiment is popular with the "whole language" crowd. The one wehre yuro'e gvien a mnalged snteecne and aeskd to raed it. As lnog as the fsirt and lsat ltteers of the words are in the proper places most people can do so quite easily.

I'd like to see deep blue or siri try that :-); 11/14/11, 4:05 AM
edutcher said...: Yes, but tree 2 looked suspiciously like tree 1.

We also assumed (I know...) that you were trying to illustrate how hard it was to see said owl in tree 1.

This is why Shouting Thomas is mad all the time. You sometimes make things more complicated than they need to be.; 11/14/11, 5:59 AM
wdnelson93 said...: Where's Wowldo?; 11/14/11, 6:23 AM
Big Mike said...: Well, I'm one of the ones that bit, but, like edutcher, it seemed perfectly reasonable that you included the 2nd image, Professor, to demonstrate how hard it was to see the owl unless one knew precisely where to look.; 11/14/11, 8:55 AM
Methadras said...: Chip, you should have put a speech bubble up in the zoomed owl pic that said, "o rly?" That would have killed it right there.; 11/14/11, 1:43 PM